


‘cause nothing but failure follows me

by MageOfCole



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Bad Ending, Bittersweet, CC-2224 | Cody Needs a Hug, Character Death, Codi-Wan, Cody deserves better, Cody-centric, Emphasis on the Bitter, First Meetings, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Mando'a, Mentions of Rex, Mind Control, My First Work in This Fandom, Obi-Wan survives but Cody doesn't know that, One-Sided Attraction, Order 66, Pining, Post-Order 66, Post-Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Post-Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Pre-Star Wars: A New Hope, References to Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), Sad, Secret Admirer, Suicide, The Author Regrets Everything, Tragedy, Utapau (Star Wars), codywan - Freeform, mentions of anakin skywalker - Freeform, no beta we die like clone troopers, obi-wan is oblivious, the clones deserve better, very sad, yeah I'm CodyWan Trash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22456030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageOfCole/pseuds/MageOfCole
Summary: Good soldiers follow orders - they’re the words that had been drilled into his head since decanting, and Cody is nothing but a good soldier.(TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE)
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 20
Kudos: 150





	‘cause nothing but failure follows me

**Author's Note:**

> Title is inspired by Save Yourself by My Darkest Days

_-Good soldiers follow orders-_

Those words had been drilled into CC-2224’s head since the day he was decanted; he was a good soldier, it was what he was _created_ for, trained for, and what he planned to do until he drew his last breath. Battle was all he knew, and unlike some of the other _vod’e_ , he had never really considered anything else - it didn’t bother him ( _he didn’t let it bother him_ ) that he had never been given the choice, that he was expected to lay down his life for a Republic that had never done anything for him, never done anything for his brothers.

Being from a CC batch, he had been trained for command, bred for it, and it came as easy to him as breathing; his tactics couldn’t be faulted, and he took pride in it. He used his position to limit as many _vod’e_ deaths as he could, and the losses they suffered weighed heavily on his shoulders, as more and more brothers died for a cause they had never chosen, as more brothers continued to march on without him.

They were good soldiers.

 _He_ was a good soldier.

But good soldiers didn’t fall in love with their commanding officers.

_-Good soldiers follow orders-_

( _The first time he meets General Kenobi, Cody is glad for his bucket, because he can’t keep his gaze from travelling from the_ jetii _’s oceanic eyes - calmer, gentler than anything they had seen on Kamino, less gray, but impossible to pin down with a distinct colour - to his flame coloured hair - a longer style nearly brushing his shoulders, wavy and non-regulation - lit from behind by the glowing light of the near-by sun._

_He had never seen such colours before in his life._

_Standing at attention on the bridge of the newly minted Navigator, he watches silently at the banter flying between General Kenobi and his Shiny -_ Padawan _;_ haar’chak _, he had to get used to the strange terms_ jetii _used_ _\- the two having yet to acknowledge the Clone commander’s presence. It’s apparent that whatever verbal battle the two are having isn’t meant to be aggressive, but the pure insubordination makes Cody twitchy, and the Padawan Commander is clearly losing, but continues to argue until the General dismisses him with a delicately raised brow and a smooth suggestion of meditation._

 _Finally, those light eyes move towards him, and the General smiles at him, a charming little quirk of his lips behind his beard, as he hides his hands in the wide sleeves of his strange_ jetii _tunic. “Hello, there.”_

_Cody snapped off a quick salute, “Commander CC-2224 reporting for duty, sir!” Brows furrowing, the General studies him, and anxiously, Cody wonders if he’s already done something to offend the General he’s been assigned to._

_“Do you have a name, Commander?”_

_Cody falters, confused - he has a name he’s chosen for himself, but it’s not something that the_ Kaminii _had encouraged, something given to him by his batchmates as a joke for his insistent following of regulations and codes, but something Cody had grasped at desperately and made his own, his one guilty pleasure in a place where there had been none. “A name, General?”_

 _“Indeed,” The Jedi says, “You and the other men, you have names, don’t you? You’re living beings, not only Clones, each one of you are originally_ yourself _in the Force.” Somehow, Cody manages to get through his pleased shock to answer._

_“Cody, sir!”_

_A hand reaches up to run through his beard, and General Kenobi smiles at him once more. “Cody?” A strong Corusanti accent rolls the name in a way that makes a shiver run down the clone’s spine. “It suits you.”_

_Behind his bucket, Cody blinks, “Sir?”_

_“_ Kote _\- it’s Mando’a for glory, Commander, and could be written as Cody in Basic.”_

_Before he can stop himself, Cody is asking his question, “You speak Mando’a, General?”_

_Instead of anger at his curiosity, the General chuckles, “Why, yes! I spent quite an amount of time on Mandalore in my youth, and found myself rather taken by the language.” The_ jetii _is still smiling, and Cody makes a mental note to pass on a warning to the men that anything said in Mando’a around the General will be understood. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Commander Cody, I look forward to working with you.”_

 _Cody salutes again, “Sir!”_ )

_-Good soldiers follow orders-_

( _Somehow, without Cody realizing it, ‘the General’ becomes ‘his General’, and ‘the Jedi’ transforms into ‘his Jedi’, as Cody spends the next five years keeping his reckless, stubborn Jedi alive. Five years of finding cloaks and lightsabers randomly on the ground during battles, and frantic searches for his frustratingly charming General because Cody knows that a_ jetii’ _s weapon is their_ life _. Five years of dragging his Jedi to medics after battles despite the man’s insistence that he’s_ **_fine, really Cody_ ** _._

 _Five years of death, and blood, and the cut-off screams of fallen brothers, interspersed with his General’s gentle voice and kind words helping grieving_ vod’e _through tough and trying times._

 _Five years of fighting to keep_ ner’jetii _from slipping through his lips fondly._ )

_-Good soldiers follow orders-_

( _Cody has just pressed a dropped lightsaber into his General’s awaiting hands, smiling up at the man because Grievous is finally dead, and Cody’s lessons in blaster-wielding to a stubbornly persistent_ jetii _who_ **_could not stop losing his weapon_ ** _is put to good use._

_Despite the blood in his ruffled hair, his General is beautiful, haloed in the golden light of Utapau - finally a good memory to have of the accursed place where even more of his brothers had met their end - and he’s grinning with exhilaration because the war is so much closer to ending._

_His comm beeps._ )

( _He should never have answered_ )

( _“Execute Order 66”_

_And Cody is gone._

_“Blast him.” CC-2224 orders.)_

_-Good soldiers follow orders-_

CC-2224 never even _realized_ what he had lost that day, not until a nasty blow to the head had knocked the aging clone to the ground and from consciousness, and _Cody_ wakes up once more with the horrible knowledge that _Rex had been right_. There had been a chip implanted in their brains from the moment of creation. They hadn’t been created to fight for the Jedi - they were made to destroy them, and the Jedi Order had been wiped out according to plan; Masters, Knights, Padawans, even the _kriffing_ Younglings, all dead by their hands.

Cody had ignored the warnings.

And his _jetii_ was dead.

- _Good soldiers follow orders-_

He was _demagolka_.

 _A monster_.

In the darkness of his quarters, his face gritty from tears and stripped from the disgusting parody of armour the Stormtroopers wore, Cody presses cold steel to his temple, clenching his eyes shut as the memories drown him and his Jedi haunts him. He thinks of gentle hands, oceanic eyes, and hair made of flames, he thinks of the look on his _cyare_ ’s beautiful face as he fell to his death on Utapau.

It's not something that a _skanah_ like him deserves, but maybe, just maybe, Cody will be able to see his General again in whatever afterlife is awaiting him.

He pulls the trigger.

_**You're the perfect drug, when it hurts like hell** _   
_**I've never needed anyone so much** _   
_**There's no one else I love and I curse myself** _   
_**'Cause the right thing is to give you up** _   
_**I'm overcome by shame, 'cause I can never change** _   
_**And you can never understand my sickness** _   
_**(I'll never understand my sickness)** _

_**Save Yourself by My Darkest Day** _

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's crying!  
> Edit: Apparently all of you
> 
> Mando'a Translations:  
> vod'e "sibling/sister/brother" [vohd]  
> jetii "Jedi" [JAY-tee]  
> haar'chak "damn it" [HAR-chak]  
> kaminii "Kaminoan" [kah-MEE-nee]  
> kote "glory" [KOH-day]  
> ner'jetii "my Jedi" [nair] [JAY-tee]  
> demagolka "a real-life monster" [deh-mah-GOHL-kah]  
> cyare "beloved/loved" [SHAH-ray]  
> skanah "much hated thing/person" [SKAH-nah]


End file.
